RWBYFall
by Omega Smash
Summary: When Dexter's newest invention malfunctions, he and Ruby Rose switch places and end up in each others' worlds. Ruby teams up with Townsville's heroes to fix the Space Warp Device while Dexter and Beacon's students investigate strange events that have been happening in Vale since his arrival.
1. What Does This Button Do?

"Dexter's Laboratory Log Three Thousand Six Hundred and Forty," Dexter said as the camera he was speaking to began recording. "After weeks of trial and error, I am finally making some serious progress on Project Space Warp. If successful, this experiment may help us in our war against Planet Fusion." The boy explained as he walked away while the camera followed him, locked onto his position.

"Shall I begin starting up the Space Warp Device, Dexter?" Computress asked, standing by the machine that the boy genius was walking toward. It was a circular blue glowing floor panel outlined by some red metal. It looked like a typical Dexlabs warp gate, albeit sleeker and about three times bigger. There were also levers, buttons, and knobs galore, and two computer screens across from each other on the outside of the device.

"Yes, please." Dexter replied before turning to face the camera again. "While Computress begins the start-up procedure, perhaps I should explain exactly what this experiment is, since I haven't given exact details in past logs." As he continued speaking, his assistant tapped one of the device's screens and a holographic keyboard appeared in front of her, allowing her to begin typing information into it.

"As I'm sure anyone who's viewing this knows, Planet Fusion is currently trying to absorb our world, and Lord Fuse is willing to go to any lengths to ensure that happens," Dexter's device made a noise that indicated it was powering up in the background. "So far, we've managed to keep the Earth and most of its citizens as safe as possible, but we have had little to no success in driving him away from our world. Every day, his Fusions injure more people and his Fusion Matter spreads to more areas, multiplying and adapting to our planet to grow even stronger."

"The Space Warp Device is currently booting up as intended." Computress interrupted as a few positive sounding electronic beeps were heard.

Dexter continued to explain excitedly. "My newest invention, the result of Project Space Warp, uses technology similar to the warp gates that you probably use to travel into the infected zones scattered around Townsville. However, this is meant to be used on a far larger scale," The boy put one hand on the machine and gestured toward it with his other hand. "This device, at some point, could be capable of teleporting you as far away as the planet Mars if my calculations are correct. Of course, at the moment we're testing it to make sure that it could even take you to the other side of this laboratory." he admitted.

"The device will be fully operational within the next few minutes." Computress spoke up again while pushing a few buttons and pulling a mechanical lever on the machine.

"I'll wrap this up then," Dexter adjusted his glasses. "I mentioned that hypothetically the Space Warp device is capable of taking you straight to Mars, but there is a closer and more strategically relevant place within that same distance. We haven't had contact with the Kids Next Door's Moonbase since the Fusions arrived on our planet, and have been unable to send any search parties due to most of our space capable vehicles being targeted and destroyed early on in the invasion. Obviously, being able to simply teleport there and back, saving anyone stranded inside and potentially getting access to more reinforcements and equipment would be a very good thing."

Nearby, a low humming noise from the boy's invention was beginning to grow in volume, and some small blue lights lit up across the machine. "The experiment will begin shortly, so I must end the video here. I should have an update ready on Project Space Warp in the next log. Dexter, out."

* * *

Meanwhile, in a forest far from Dexter's laboratory, a girl with a red hood and scythe in her hands charged forward. "Alright, let's do this!" Ruby let out a battle cry, but was quickly knocked backwards into the air by a vine-like appendage. "I shouldn't have done that!" The girl shouted as she flew backwards through the air.

Suddenly, a glyph that resembled a snowflake appeared behind her, stopping her and cushioning her impact. "Nice catch, Weiss! That was pretty cool!" Ruby complimented her best friend as she safely jumped to the ground.

"I told you it was a bad idea to just mindlessly charge at it!" Weiss complained as she ran toward her partner with her rapier drawn.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Ruby retorted as she picked her weapon up off the ground, before she noticed something approaching them. "Watch out!" The girl used her weapon to slash another pitch black vine into pieces before it could reach her partner. She then did the same to another one that reached for her while her friend used her rapier to cut a third one that was larger and had a few small branches that almost looked like fingers. At least half a dozen more of the dark vines started charging toward both of them. "Weiss! Crescent Propeller!" she called out as she threw her scythe into the air.

"On it!" Weiss pointed her weapon at Ruby's and created a glyph around the latter's scythe before it could hit the ground. A second later, it began to quickly spin in midair much like, appropriate to the attack name, a propeller. The girl in white then moved her rapier, controlling the scythe and sending it flying around herself and her partner, slicing through the limbs that were attacking them. Once the vines surrounding them were cut to pieces, they both ran forward, using the makeshift propeller as a shield as it continued to shred through the plant-like appendages. After Weiss knew she had sliced through all of the vines chasing them, she stopped spinning the scythe and Ruby grabbed it in midair as her friend's glyph disappeared.

"Uh oh..." Ruby muttered as she looked at the monster they were now standing a few feet away from. Its face was black and white, with yellow eyes and red markings that made it clear the creature was a Grimm. The rest of its body resembled a tortoise, with four dark colored scaly legs and a light colored shell that looked like it was made out of rock covering the rest of its body. In addition, about a dozen black vines like the ones that had attacked Ruby and Weiss were connected to it, and they had buried themselves into the ground like plant roots. Unfortunately, more vines were slowly but surely growing out of the back of the creature's shell, replacing the ones that were just cut to pieces. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the Grimm was also about as tall as the tress surrounding the area and several times as wide. "That's a big turtle monster..." The girl in red commented in awe.

"Tortoise." Weiss corrected her. The Grimm started growling, showing off some ugly teeth as it did so.

"...What?" Ruby asked. Both of the girls were watching the monster closely in case they needed to react to an attack.

"Turtles are in the water and have fins. This Grimm is on land and has legs, so it's a big tortoise monster." the girl with white hair replied.

"Why does it matter?" Ruby asked, glancing at one of the monster's nearby root-like vines buried in the ground.

"Because they're different animals and it's important to know the difference," Weiss explained. "Information like that could save your life someday."

"...How?" Ruby replied, shifting her gaze between the Grimm and its appendages still in the ground. "Ugh... Never mind, we've got bigger problems to worry about."

"Fair enough," Weiss conceded, noticing that the tortoise creature's vines were nearly fully regrown and they didn't have time for a biology lesson. "What's the plan?"

"It hasn't attacked us with those plant tentacle things that it still has in the ground. I'm betting there's a reason for that." The scythe wielder also silently noted that the grass in the surrounding area, especially around the vines, looked dry and brown, and there were several small plants in the area that looked like they were dead or dying as well.

"It also hasn't tried attacking us with its legs or teeth," Weiss added. "It's just sitting there and letting us talk right in front of it. That's unusual behavior for a Grimm..." The creature growled menacingly at her, but still didn't attack while she bent over to pick up a particularly ill looking flower.

"What are these things, anyway?" Ruby walked up to one of the buried vines and looked up close, before trying to pull it out of the ground with one hand. She couldn't get it to budge and tried pulling harder as a result. "I don't think... I can move this..." She let go of the vine, sure that even if she tried her hardest, it wouldn't be going anywhere. "The way these are buried in the ground, they're almost like..."

"They're plant roots," Weiss replied, finishing her partner's thought for her. The flower she had picked practically broke apart as she held it in her hand. "It's hurting everything else in this ecosystem to support itself."

"We need to stop this thing before it kills everything else in this forest." Ruby adjusted her scythe and got ready to slice the vine she was standing next to.

"Ruby!" Weiss noticed that there were several more vines lunging straight at her and her friend. "We have a problem!"

* * *

"Dexter, the Space Warp device appears to be malfunctioning." Computress informed the boy genius as she read a notification on the holographic screen.

"What?" Dexter activated another screen on the machine and looked for himself. The boy tapped the screen and several virtual sliders and knobs appeared. "Maybe I just need to adjust the settings."

"This is still technically a prototype," Computress reminded Dexter as she continued to look for information on her own screen. "The machine itself seems to be functioning well enough. There may be a flaw with the interface."

"I could have sworn I had fixed all of the bugs, but..." Suddenly, both his and Computress' screen froze and an odd red static effect briefly appeared. "What is going on?"

"Dexter, this glitch could potentially be dangerous," Computress noted, but as quickly as the malfunction began, it ended, leaving the screens back to normal. The two looked at each other in confusion. "I strongly recommend we stop this experiment until we know what exactly is causing these issues."

"But... I've been working on this project non-stop for weeks. How could I have missed a minor flaw like this?" Dexter tapped his screen and began typing on the holographic keyboard that appeared when a thought occurred to him. "Hmm... A minor flaw. And whatever it is, it only affects the interface and not the device itself."

"We don't know that for sure," Computress insisted. "If we delay the test and fully diagnose the issue-"

"The device is fully operational and is running with no problems, that brief glitch aside," Dexter interrupted his assistant. "I just ran a full diagnostic test."

"Within ten seconds?" Computress was skeptical. "Dexter, I-"

"Our screens briefly malfunctioned, but when they did nothing else was affected," Dexter insisted, again interrupting his assistant in hopes of reassuring her. "We have no evidence to suggest that the device itself has a major problem."

"But it's still a possibility," Computress countered, but knew that if her creator wanted to move ahead, there wasn't much she could do to stop him. "Are you certain that you want to continue the experiment?"

"Yes, I'm positive," Dexter answered confidently. "Trust me. What's the worst that could happen?"

"The Space Warp Device could have a severe malfunction and explode, which would have the power to decimate all of Tech Square and the surrounding area." Computress calculated.

"...Well, at least it would take out Mandark Industries too." Dexter commented, trying to lighten the mood after the revelation. "Right then... I'll set the device's coordinates. A portal should open right over there." Dexter pointed to a mostly empty part of the room that had been cleared to make room for the experiment.

"The experiment is ready to proceed," Computress said reluctantly. "For the record, I still feel that this isn't a good idea, Dexter."

"I understand your concern, but it wouldn't be science without a few risks every now and then, would it?" Dexter returned to his screen on the device and began typing on the virtual keyboard that projected out of it. "Prepare for the first test in three, two-"

* * *

"-One!" Ruby ran toward the last root in the ground and sliced it with her scythe, causing the Grimm to shriek in pain. "That's all of them. Hopefully that- Uh oh!" She looked back at the monster just in time to see one of its giant feet moving toward her in a stomping motion. The girl dashed out of the way, leaving some rose petals behind as it hit the ground. The tortoise growled again in anger.

"We definitely made it upset," Weiss commented as she slashed through a couple of the creature's vines. "But it looks like that's all we did."

The Grimm shifted its gaze toward the duo and snarled before the appendages on its back started to grow back once more. It then moved another leg forward and began to walk toward them, no longer anchored by its roots. "Scratch that. We actually made things worse." the girl in white added.

"This thing has to have a weak point somewhere," Ruby said as she and Weiss started to back away from the monster. The Grimm continued to move toward them, and it sent two vines that looked very different from the others to attack them. They resembled fly trap plants in a way, but their mouths looked like the kind one would expect to see on a mammalian carnivore. "...Are those teeth?!"

"This isn't good." Weiss noticed that there were at least a dozen other vines getting ready to attack her and Ruby as well.

But as one of the two fly trap plants was about to lunge at Weiss, the sound of a gunshot accompanied a bullet that blasted a hole through it, causing it to drop to the ground. She looked in the direction it came from and saw a girl dressed in black with a bow on her head standing in one of the nearby treetops.

"Hey, ugly!" A blonde girl with gauntlet weapons on her hands jumped in front of Ruby and grabbed the other fly trap by its mouth. "My sister isn't a chew toy!" Yang then pulled the top and bottom of its mouth apart with enough strength that she tore its head in half.

"Where have you two been?" Weiss asked the other two members of her team as she adjusted the setting on her weapon and used an augmented bullet to hit a few other vines and freeze them in ice.

"A pack of Beowolves gave us some trouble." Blake replied as she jumped out of the tree and fired some more rounds at the plant appendages.

"So, what's with the giant turtle?" Yang asked as she added some shots of her own into the mix.

"Tortoise," Weiss corrected her friend. "Turtles are in the-"

"That doesn't matter right now, Weiss!" Ruby interrupted her partner and answered her sister's question. "This Grimm is siphoning the nutrients in the ground and killing all of the nearby plants." She used her scythe to slash through several vines at once, putting another temporary stop to the onslaught.

"Oh. Is that it?" Yang asked, causing Ruby to raise an eyebrow. "I'm not saying that's a good thing, I just would have thought that something this big would be doing something worse than killing plants."

"Yang," Weiss started to explain. "Right now it's just siphoning this area, but when it's done here it'll move on to another area, siphon that area, then move again, siphon, and repeat until the whole forest is nothing but dead trees and plants!"

"Yeah, that's sort of lame. Is it at least going to eat the animals too, or something?" Yang questioned as Ruby face palmed and Weiss folded her arms and shook her head.. "Eh, never mind. I'll kill it anyway." Yang pointed her gauntlets at the monster and got ready to fire a barrage of bullets.

"Yang, wait-!" Ruby tried to warn her sister, but was unable to stop Yang as she began to fire several quick shots at the Grimm's head, all of which bounced harmlessly off it and fell to the ground. The damage done appeared to be non-existent as the creature reacted by blinking, with a look on its face that seemed little more than mildly annoyed.

"We already tried that! Nothing we have is going to break through that shell." Weiss explained.

"We've got more of those vine things on their way!" Blake noticed more appendages growing out of the tortoise's back, along with some more coming out of its sides.

"Maybe the places those vines are coming from are where it's vulnerable..." Ruby thought out loud before quickly coming up with a plan. "Weiss, Blake, you try and get up there! Yang and I will distract it."

"Right!" Weiss summoned a few glyphs that were arranged in a way that they'd act as stepping stones onto the Grimm. "Let's hurry." Blake nodded and both of them began to jump between the hovering platforms. Some vines changed course to try and intercept them, but were quickly shot down by Ruby, who had shifted her weapon into its sniper rifle form.

"Well, I think the distraction is working." The blonde girl commented. She punched two vines and grabbed a third one, tearing it in half. Another couple plants tried to sneak up behind her, but some shots from Ruby prevented their ambush.

"That's a safe bet." Her sister replied. She noticed that more of the appendages now seemed to have either partially formed hands or mouths like she had seen on a few of the vines earlier. Ruby called out to her friends loud enough that they could hear her on top of the tortoise. "How do things look up there?"

"Crowded!" Her partner replied as she held off as many of the plants as she could while Blake knelt down to examine one of the openings for the tortoise's appendages.

"This almost looks like flesh..." Blake said as she stood up. "Let me know if it reacts to this!" She stabbed the area with her sword. The Grimm's response was a loud cry of pain and all of its appendages briefly flinched in mid air where they were.

"It reacted to that!" Yang shouted to her partner once the screeching stopped as she took advantage of the monster's paralysis and fired some shotgun rounds at its limbs.

"Looks like you were right about its weakness!" Weiss found another spot that hadn't started to form another vine and stabbed it with her rapier, causing the monster to emit another shriek. "Great! Now we just need to do this a few dozen more times, and-" Suddenly, the Grimm pushed its front legs into the ground and jumped backwards, briefly standing on its back legs.

"Guys! Are you alright?!" Ruby didn't hear a response, but noticed that the Grimm was coming back down fast, and looked like it was going to land right on her and her sister.

"Move!" She activated her semblance and Yang shot one of her gauntlets behind her to boost herself. In the former's haste to get out of the way, she tripped over something on the ground, but had managed to get far enough that she wouldn't be crushed. The monster landed on its feet, creating some dust that traveled in the air while it growled loudly.

"Ruby! Are you okay?" Yang ran to her sister. Both of them coughed a few times due to the dirt in the air.

"Ow..." Ruby managed to say after the coughing subsided. Yang helped her up, but she cringed a bit as she got back to her feet. "Weiss! Blake!" She called again, still worried that they hadn't responded a few moments ago.

"We're fine!" Weiss called back as she and Blake landed on a glyph nearby before jumping to the ground. "The shell is practically unbreakable, but everything under-" Their leader tried to walk up to them, but nearly fell over again. "Ruby, what's wrong?"

"I think I sprained my ankle or something..." The girl in red stood up again after some difficulty with help from her sister. "I can stand, but moving around is going to be a problem."

"Don't strain yourself!" Weiss said in concern as Ruby tried to take another step forward. "You'll make the injury worse."

"Well, it's sort of hard to stand still when- Ow!" She felt another surge of pain in her ankle, but managed to keep her footing. "Okay... If I move a little slower, I-"

"Just stay back here," Yang told her sister. "The three of us will-"

"Um... Guys." Blake got her friends' attention as the dust settled and pointed at the Grimm. It looked much angrier than before, and also had what looked like two giant green hands with large, almost humanoid fingers. On closer look one could tell that the various smaller vines were wrapping around each other to form the two hands, both of which clenched to form fists.

"We aren't done yet. Let's finish this," Ruby said as she shifted her weapon back into its scythe form. "I can still fight, it's just going to hurt a little bit more than usual." She tried to reassure herself as well as her friends.

"I guess we don't have much of a choice," Weiss replied. All four girls had their weapons drawn and were ready to fight. "You have a plan, right?"

"Working on it," The leader tried to think. "We just have to strike at its weak spots. If we all take turns attacking and distracting it we might be able to keep getting on its back and hitting it until we take it down."

"That sounds pretty boring." Yang complained.

"And time consuming," Weiss added. "I'm not sure that we have enough energy or ammo to do that, especially with your ankle. We might need to fall back and get reinforcements."

"We can't just retreat and leave it here." Ruby countered. "When we come back it might have done more damage. It's up to us to take this turtle down!"

"Tortoise." Weiss reminded her partner once more.

"Whatever it is, it's about to get shell shocked!" Yang declared, causing the others to look at her in disbelief. "You know, because it has a shell..."

"It's a giant plant monster, Weiss," Ruby began to argue, trying to ignore her sister's pun. "Why do you-?" Suddenly, the team heard a strange, loud noise in front of them that sounded like an electronic vacuum of some kind. Their attention was then drawn to a bright blue light that appeared out of seemingly nowhere on the ground close to the monster.

The Grimm also noticed the odd light and growled before trying to stomp on it with one foot. It disappeared for a moment, but as the plant creature turned its attention back to Team RWBY, it reappeared, and the monster began to glow a bright blue. The girls covered their eyes for a moment since it was incredibly bright and heard another loud noise, this one more comparable to energy forming and then dissipating. A moment later, they reopened their eyes and saw that not only was the monster gone, but there was a portal of some sort on the ground.

"What just happened?" Blake managed to ask as her friends simply stood there in silent shock and confusion.

* * *

"Dexter, I just picked up some strange readings from the device." Computress informed the boy.

"I noticed. It seemed like a power surge of some kind," Dexter replied as he looked around the room. Despite or perhaps because of the power spike it looked like the device had failed to create a portal. "It looks like I underestimated the device's flaws. You were right, Computress. Well, I suppose we should shut it down so that I can figure out what's wrong with it."He was disappointed that the machine didn't seem to work, but decided there was no use crying over spilled milk.

"Actually," Computress started to say after she received another reading. "The Space Warp Device successfully created a portal."

"Really?!" Dexter asked in excitement as he ran back up to the machine's holographic screen to confirm for himself. "Yes, it has! But if it isn't in the lab..." He looked at the center platform on the Space Warp Device. Normally it looked like just a bunch of clear blue hexagons, but now the boy could see a bright blue sky. He walked onto it to get a closer look and realized what he was seeing. "It looks like the portal was created somewhere outside."

"I'm checking the portal's coordinates now." Computress began to tap some icons on her monitor. "I've already ruled out the Science District and Midtown."

"Let me know when... Hmm?" Dexter noticed someone walk up to the portal and look back at him through it. "Hello there. Can you tell me where you are?" He tried communicating with the girl on the other side. She looked confused, as if she was trying to understand what he was saying. "I'm sorry about this, I was testing an invention of mine and I accidentally created a portal out there. Can you hear me?"

* * *

"Um... Hi!" Ruby smiled and waved at the boy she saw on the other side of the portal. She could see his lips moving, but couldn't hear what he was saying.

"Ruby, get away from that!" Weiss cried out in panic. "Did you not notice that thing vaporize a massive Grimm?"

"Okay, good. I wasn't the only one who saw that." Yang, like the others, was still trying to process what exactly had just happened.

"Guys, there's some boy on the other side of this thing," She looked closer and noticed that the picture she was seeing on the other side was cut up into hexagonal pieces and shimmered a little like she was looking into a body of water. "I don't know that this is but- Ow... it's really cool!" Ruby moved her foot to get onto the strange anomaly, but did it in a way that made her feel another jolt of pain.

"Have you lost your mind?" Weiss walked up to Ruby and grabbed her arm, trying to gently pull her back to avoid aggravating her injury. "You don't know what could happen if you touch this thing!"

"Well, the boy on the other side is standing on it," Ruby pointed at him and noticed that one of her feet was now on the portal and nothing was happening to her. "See? It's fine." She moved her arm and got Weiss to let go.

"We should really get you back to Beacon," Blake insisted. "The more you use that ankle the longer it'll take to heal, and we need you in top shape for the Vytal Festival."

"Normally I'd agree with you, but there's a cool blue portal thing on the ground." Ruby took a couple more slow steps onto the portal and crouched to examine it. The boy seemed to be talking to someone she couldn't see and he walked off the platform.

"Hey, wait! Can you tell me what this thing is?" The girl called out to him. "I couldn't hear him talking before, so maybe he can't hear me..." she speculated.

"It's someone's semblance," Yang thought out loud. "That boy you're seeing probably has the ability to make portals. I've seen it before..."

"This seems... different, though. I've never seen a semblance that looks like this," Ruby replied as she felt the ground. "This feels... artificial, in a way." Even though the picture she was seeing almost looked like an illusion, she could feel something other than grass on the ground. She ran her fingers through it and noticed that not only did it feel a bit like liquid, but that touching it had created a ripple effect that briefly distorted the image.

* * *

"Dexter, I've now ruled out the greater Townsville area and much of the state," Computress stated. "I'll continue to search for the portal's location, but it's safe to say that it was severely off target."

"Fascinating," Dexter replied. "But also very concerning. If I can't even make a portal open in the state I want it too, it's hard to imagine I'll be able to open one accurately to the Moonbase or anywhere else for that matter." He walked back onto the machine's platform and saw that the girl was still there and waved at him again. The boy waved back, before speaking to Computress again. "Shut down the device, perhaps the interface isn't the problem after all. I'll disassemble it and see if I can find the cause of the problem."

"As you wish, Dexter." Computress began to type into her virtual keyboard, but a strange power charge noise was accompanied by the device's platform changing color to red. The keyboard also disappeared and she was unable to reactivate it. "Something's wrong. The device isn't responding and I can't access the interface."

* * *

"The other side looks like a facility or a lab. I think some kind of technology is making this." Ruby commented as she slowly stood up.

"Teleportation is physically impossible to create using technology," Weiss reminded Ruby. "And regardless, could you please get off that thing? I don't have a good feeling about it."

"I'm with Weiss," Blake agreed. "Whatever that is, it's not interesting enough to stick around and risk our safety."

"Aren't you curious to know what this is, though?" Ruby asked. "Won't it bother you if we just go home and never find out what caused it?"

Weiss shook her head and sighed. "It'll bother me if you get hurt messing with it. Now come on, more Grimm could show up at any second."

"Alright, fine, just let me-" The group heard a strange noise and the portal Ruby was standing on suddenly turned from bright blue to red. "-Huh?"

"Okay, red is never a good color for freaky portals," Yang noted. "Let's go."

"Um, guys..." Ruby started to say as she tried to move.

"Ruby, I know it's strange and we don't know what's going on, but that's all the more reason to leave," Weiss was losing her patience. "Now get off that thing!"

"I'm trying!" Ruby grabbed her leg and tried pulling. "I'm stuck, My legs won't move!"

"Oh, perfect!" Weiss ran up to her friend. "I told you not to mess with it!"

"Wait! Don't get on here!" Ruby stopped her partner from stepping onto the portal and potentially getting stuck herself. The leader pulled out her weapon and extended it into scythe form. "Grab Crescent Rose and try to get me off that way!"

"Hurry!" Yang panicked. "We have to get out of here!"

* * *

"Computress, what's going on?" Dexter's legs were paralyzed and he was unable to move off the platform.

"The Space Warp Device is critically damaged! A system failure is imminent." Computress reported as the machine started to spark with electricity and a noise made it sound as if it was overloading. "I can't stop it. We must evacuate, Dexter!"

"I can't move! There's no time, get out of here!" Dexter shouted. He looked down at his legs and noticed that they were glowing red and his feet were starting to disappear. "The Space Warp Device is taking me somewhere! I'll survive the teleportation, just figure out where I go and come find me!"

About half of the boy genius' body was now gone and the remainder of it was glowing.

* * *

"Weiss, let go!" Even with her friend trying to pull her she couldn't move an inch. "I'm not going anywhere, just save yourself!"

"We aren't going anywhere without you!" Weiss pulled on Crescent Rose as hard as she could, but it continued to be futile. Ruby was practically glued to the portal. "Just hang on!"

She noticed that Ruby's legs were starting to glow red and disappear. "We'll get you out of here! Just-"

"I'm sorry!" Ruby let go of her weapon, causing it and Weiss to fall backwards as her arms started to glow red and fade away as well. She wasn't in any pain, and she could still feel her limbs as if they were still there, but she wasn't sure if she would survive what was happening to her. "I-" The light consumed Ruby and the light glowed bright enough that her friends had to shield their eyes for a moment.

"Ruby!" Yang said helplessly as Blake stood beside her in silent shock. "No... She can't be..."

Weiss ran over to the light. "Ruby..." It was starting to dim enough that she could look into it, and she managed to catch a glimpse of a silhouette on the ground. She was about to breathe a sigh of relief before she realized that it didn't seem to look like Ruby. As the light disappeared, her friends could see that instead of Ruby, there was a boy with orange hair in a lab coat who seemed to be unconscious. Blake and Yang looked at each other in confusion.

Weiss thought for a moment. "He was on the other side of that portal... If he's here, then..."

* * *

Computress returned to the test room with a Dexbot to see The Space Warp Device in pieces of varying sizes scattered everywhere. The room itself wasn't much better, and the few other projects that were being kept there looked like they couldn't be salvaged. Even the walls were broken enough to reveal the hallways behind them. However, she also noticed that in the center of it all was a girl wearing a red hood. She seemed unharmed, but was unconscious.

"My scans indicate a heartbeat," the Dexbot said. "She's alive."

"Take her to a recovery room," Computress ordered. She wasn't sure who the girl was, but knew that wherever she was brought from was most likely where Dexter was now. She examined the mess of parts on the ground that were formerly the Space Warp Device. "I'll make some calls."


	2. I Don't Think We're In Vale Anymore

"Bio scan in progress," A voice said in a monotone.

"Wh-What?" Ruby quickly opened her eyes and sat up, surprised by what she heard as she woke up. She noticed that she was inside a mostly dark metal container with a blue light on the ceiling shining over her and moving back and forth across her body. "What's going on?"

"Please remain still until the bio scan is complete," The robotic voice added.

"Where am I?" The girl had no idea what was going on but tried to remain calm. "Why am I inside this thing?"

"You are in a recovery room at Dexlabs," She was told. "You will be released from the bio scan pod once the process is complete."

"Um... Okay," The young huntress understood next to nothing of the explanation."What's Dexlabs?"

"Dexlabs is one of the world's leading research and development facilities, led and funded primarily by our founder, Dexter," The voice answered as if it was reading from an Internet article.

"Oh," Ruby thought it was strange that she had never heard of something that important in Vale. "So you guys made that portal in Emerald Forest?"

"Yes. During one of Dexter's experiments, a malfunction occurred, bringing you here," She was told. Suddenly, the light went out and the girl heard what sounded like a hatch opening. "The bio scan is complete, you may exit the pod."

"Okay, thanks." Ruby covered her eyes for a moment so that they could adjust to the brightness of the room. She stepped out carefully, remembering her injured ankle. "Where are my friends? Do they know I'm here?"

"If you can provide us with the necessary information, then we can contact them for you and provide directions to this facility if you wish," the robotic voice offered.

"Actually, I can just call them on-" She opened her eyes and saw that there didn't seem to be anyone in front of her. "...Where did you go?"

"I am down here," A short blue robot with yellow eyes answered. "We apologize for any inconvenience this mishap has caused and hope that you forgive us and will not consider threatening us with legal action."

The girl blinked, taking a moment to process what she was seeing. "Cool! I didn't know adorable little robot assistants were invented yet!"

"I am a Dexlabs Robot, commonly referred to as a Dexbot," It explained. "I will inform Computress that you are awake. Goodbye," The Dexbot said as it left the room.

"Um... Alright. Bye!" Ruby was still confused about what exactly was going on, but decided that she should use her scroll to contact her friends before she did anything else.

The girl pulled out her device and tried to call Weiss, but it quickly ended the attempt and a pop-up message appeared on the screen. "No signal? Weird..." The place she was in didn't seem like it would have anything that could cause signal interference.

"Maybe if I go -Ow!" The hooded girl cringed as she took another step and pain surged through her foot. "-Outside... I'll have better reception." She reached for her weapon so that she could use it as a makeshift cane, but noticed that it wasn't there. The girl suddenly remembered what had happened just before she lost consciousness, and that she had let go of her weapon earlier while Weiss was trying to help her get off the portal.

"So... I'm in a strange facility that I've never heard of before, I have a sprained ankle, my friends don't know where I am, my scroll isn't working, and I'm unarmed," She recapped in a deadpan tone to herself. She started to awkwardly limp over to an open door that let her out of the room.

"On the bright side, falling through Torchwick's ceiling in Mountain Glenn doesn't seem so bad anymore," Ruby slowly walked out into the hallway. "Then again, Weiss is going to nag me about this from now on instead and Yang isn't going to let me leave her sight ever again..."

The girl continued down another hall and passed by a room that caught her attention. She looked inside and saw that there were several more copies of the robot that she had encountered before. They seemed to be sorting bits and pieces of scrap metal. "Huh..."

"Pardon me," Another Dexbot passed by her, carrying more broken machine parts. It then addressed its fellow robots. "Roughly thirty-six percent of the debris in the portal room has been cleared. Computress would like us to increase that number to fifty percent within the hour."

"I wonder if that has something to do with the portal that brought me here..." Ruby commented as she started to walk back into the hallway. "What have I gotten myself into this time?"

* * *

"Be very careful with those pieces, we'll likely need those in order to repair the power generator," Computress ordered some Dexbots as she continued to examine the debris and input information into a portable screen she was holding.

"Understood," One of the blue machines spoke for the group as they all continued cleaning up the mess. While the room looked better than earlier, there were still plenty of machine parts and debris left to gather.

"What happened here?" A girl with a red bow in her hair floated into the room, surveying the damage.

Hearing a familiar sounding voice, Computress turned her attention to the new visitor. "Blossom, thank you for coming. I'm sorry for the short notice, but we have an urgent problem. One of Dexter's experiments malfunctioned and we could use your assistance."

"No need to apologize, I'm a superhero. Urgent problems on short notice are my specialty," Blossom assured her. "But if I may ask, why call for me specifically?"

"Your father was a consultant and helped with this experiment, but he's busy with research out of Townsville. When I contacted him he said that he had some notes for the project in his lab. I was hoping that you could look through them and see if any information they have could help us repair the device," The android explained.

"So, you just need me to grab the notes and bring them back here to Dexter? I can handle that pretty easily," She suddenly noticed the boy genius' absence. "Where is he, anyway?"

"I'm... not quite sure," Computress wanted to keep the fact that Dexter was missing a secret from the public to avoid any panic but decided that Blossom was trustworthy enough to know the full story. "There's more to this situation than what I've told you so far."

* * *

"Well, here we are. Dexlabs," A boy wearing flight goggles and a light blue shirt commented as he and his friend stood in front of a very hi-tech looking building. It had a mostly blue and white color scheme, but the obvious sign that they were in the right place was, quite literally, the sign that read 'Dexlabs' over the doors.

"Why did Dexter want you here anyway, Numbuh Two?" His friend, a girl wearing a red cap and a dark blue shirt asked.

"Oh, right. I never did mention why we came here," The boy remembered as they both kept walking toward the entrance. "Come to think of it, Computress never mentioned why either. She just said that she needed my help with something at Dexlabs."

"Numbuh Five thought that Dexter didn't outsource his projects," Abby replied in third person as usual, looking around the square.

"Normally he doesn't but he comes to me for advice every now and again. Off the top of my head, he consulted me about finding ways to get up to the Moonbase. That was a while ago, but maybe it has something to do with that," Hoagie pulled on a door handle. "Or there could be some... other project he wants to talk about," He continued to pull, but the door remained shut. "I'm one of the... best minds... in the Kids... Next... Door... I think this door's broken."

"No, the handle says to push the door open. You're pulling it." Numbuh Five pointed out as she pushed and sure enough, they got inside the entrance with no issue.

"In my defense, a place this hi-tech should have doors that open automatically anyway." Numbuh Two folded his arms.

"Uh-huh. Whatever you-" Abby noticed a girl slowly walking toward them. She was wearing a red hood but was otherwise dressed in black and had silver eyes.

"Um...excuse me. Is this the way out of here?" Ruby asked as she stopped and tried to balance herself.

"Yeah," Numbuh Five answered. She noticed that the girl seemed confused and a little worried about something. "Are you lost?"

"Sort of..." Ruby looked outside the doors and saw a fountain nearby. "I'm just going to step outside. I can't get a scroll signal in here for some reason and I need to call my friends."

"Maybe something Dexter's working on in here is causing the interference," It occurred to Numbuh Two that it'd be polite to hold the door open for her. "Here, let me get that... for you." He pushed the door but couldn't seem to make it budge. "Hang on... I thought you had to push these doors."

"From the outside, yeah." Abby pulled open another nearby door and stepped back to let the huntress through.

"Again, these things should just open on their own. I'll bring this up with Dex when I talk to him..." Hoagie complained.

"Thanks. If any of those cool little robots ask, could you tell them I'm just out here?" Ruby requested as she walked out the door.

"No problem." Numbuh Five answered. Once Ruby was outside, the operative turned to her friend. "What was that phone she was holding? I've never seen one like that before."

"Beats me, and I'm normally up to date on new tech like that," Numbuh Two shrugged. "Oh well, let's get to the front desk and make sure they know we're here."

* * *

Ruby walked out of the building and kept trying to make her scroll connect, but she still couldn't reach Weiss. She tried calling Blake and Yang's scrolls but the same error continued to occur. The girl thought about calling some of her other friends but figured that she'd have the same problem. "This thing must be broken or something..." The young huntress sat down on the front steps and sighed.

The girl looked over at the fountain in front of her and got a better look at it. She noticed that past it was a very tall, dark building that almost seemed like an evil twin of the one she was just in. "Where am I? I've never seen buildings or technology like this." Ruby noticed some more blue robots and a few darker ones with red eyes gathered by the fountain.

"Is this place even in Vale?" She thought out loud. She leaned backwards to sit on her back, but before she could get comfortable she noticed something very unsettling in the sky.

Back inside Dexlabs' lobby, Numbuhs Two and Five were at a counter talking to a Dexbot. "Computress has been informed that you have arrived," It told them.

"Thanks!" Hoagie replied as the robot continued to type information into a holographic keyboard. "By the way, do you know why I was asked to come here?"

"I do not have access to that information." The Dexbot replied.

"Hmm... I wonder-" The boy was interrupted as the girl from earlier walked back into the lobby and toward the KND agents. She looked like she had just seen a ghost. "Everything okay?"

"There's some kind of giant green... thing in the sky!" She exclaimed.

"Do you mean Planet Fusion?" Numbuh Five asked.

"Do I?" Ruby was surprised that the two kids seemed more concerned about her than what she had just described. "How long has that been there?"

"For a few months now," Numbuh Two answered. "Did you... not notice that before?"

"No..." Ruby was already under the impression that there was something strange about where she was, but now she was even more astounded. "This is probably going to sound like a dumb question, but where am I?"

"Uh... Dexlabs?" Hoagie replied in confusion.

"Yeah, but in what city? In which kingdom?" The girl asked.

"Kingdom?" Abby and Hoagie exchanged confused looks. "You're in the city of Townsville."

"Okay..." Ruby was now even more confused. That didn't sound like any nearby city that she knew of. "That's somewhere in Vale, right?"

"I've never even heard of a place with that name." The boy scratched the back of his head.

"So, you don't know where you are, and we don't know where you came from," Numbuh Five folded her arms. "Something's not right here."

"You're telling me..." Ruby agreed. "What's going on here?"

"That's what we hope to find out," A woman with blue metallic skin began to explain as she entered the room. She was followed by a girl dressed in red who was floating in mid air. "I apologize for the delay in meeting you, I have more responsibilities than usual at the moment."

"Are you Dexter?" Ruby asked. She noticed that the woman looked similar to the robots she had seen earlier, and her skin even looked artificial. "You're an android, aren't you?"

"No and Yes," She responded. "I am Dexter's assistant and adviser, Computress."

"Dexter built and programmed her, but she has her own free will and personality, just like anyone else," The girl next to Computress added. "I'm Blossom, by the way.

"I'm Numbuh Two from the Kids Next Door," Hoagie introduced himself. "And this is Numbuh Five, from the same."

"I'm Ruby," The girl in the red hood introduced herself. "It's nice to meet all of you, and this place is really cool and all, but I'd really like to get home... Could you please put another of those portals on the ground and take me back?"

"It's not as easy as that, unfortunately," The android explained. "The Space Warp Device is completely inoperable at the moment, but we will begin repairing it shortly."

"A Space Warp Device?" Numbuh Two asked. "That was one of the ideas Dexter and I brainstormed a while back. I didn't know he had a working prototype."

"Actually, that's the reason I called you. Dexter had many consultants on this project, but you were the biggest contributor. You helped him with the blueprints and understand the workings of the machine better than most. Without him, you're our best chance to fix it," Computress replied.

"Wait, hang on. Without him?" Numbuh Five asked in concern. "He's not dead or something, is he?"

"No, no. Nothing like that," Blossom quickly stepped in to clarify. "He's just missing. When the Space Warp Device malfunctioned, he was sent somewhere that we haven't pinpointed yet."

"So, Dexter was the boy on the other side of that portal..." Ruby realized as she heard the others explain what was going on. "If I'm here where he was, maybe that means he's back in Emerald Forest."

"And that's in Vale?" Abby asked, and Ruby nodded in response. "Great. Now we just need to figure out where in the world Vale is..."

"You guys really don't know about Vale? But it's one of the four- Ow!" The hooded girl cringed as she started to move her foot and ended up stepping on it in a very uncomfortable way.

"Are you alright?" Blossom asked as she floated toward her.

"It's just my my foot acting up..." Ruby replied as she knelt forward for a moment.

Blossom looked at Ruby's foot and quickly figured out what the problem was. "Your ankle is sprained. It's minor, but you should still go to a hospital."

"How did you figure that out?" Ruby wondered out loud.

"X-ray vision. It comes in handy," The PowerPuff Girl explained. "Did you get that injury from teleporting?"

"Actually, I hurt it right before that when I was fighting a Grimm." The huntress replied.

"A Grimm?" Numbuh Two asked.

"...This is making my head hurt," Ruby didn't think it was possible to live anywhere in Remnant and not know about the Grimm. "You seriously don't know about...? Never mind."

The huntress in training stood up and tried to steady herself. "If it's going to be a bit before I can head home, I guess a trip to the hospital won't hurt. Would anyone mind taking me there?"

"Sure. Numbuh Five can get you there no problem," Abby offered, before turning to the others. "You guys should be able to take care of things here, right?"

"I can already think of some things that we'll need in order to get the Space Warp Device working again that might not be here," Hoagie thought out loud. "I'll put together a list."

"I'll head home and find the Professor's notes. Maybe there are some materials in his lab that might help us too," Blossom chimed in.

"Alright, contact us if anything comes up." Numbuh Five walked out of the building with Ruby following a little slowly so that she didn't aggravate her ankle.

"This is troubling..." Computress commented after the two had left.

"What do you mean?" Numbuh Two asked.

"I've never heard of a place anywhere called Vale, but Ruby talked about it like it was common knowledge," Blossom folded her arms. "And it's virtually impossible for her to not know about Planet Fusion."

"You don't believe her? She seemed nice, and it felt like she was telling the truth," Hoagie replied.

"I believe her. That's why I'm worried..." The superhero thought for a moment. "How far could that machine have taken Dexter?"

"Our calculations showed that it could reach Mars, but she can't be from there, and certainly not from the Moonbase or Planet Fusion," Computress explained. "It may be that we underestimated its capabilities."

"You're saying that she's an alien?" The KND operative scratched his head. "That's not impossible but she looks human to me, and the Space Warp Device from my calculations would have problems reaching the Moonbase, let alone any distant planets."

"Excuse me, Computress?" A Dexbot came into the room with a sheet of paper. "The girl's bio scan results are complete."

* * *

"How long do you think I'm going to be here?" Ruby asked. She and Abby had been sitting in the waiting room for a few minutes and the former was already bored, so she figured it wouldn't hurt to make conversation.

"Not too much longer. You'd probably have been seen by now if it wasn't so busy today." Numbuh Five had noticed that the hospital seemed a little understaffed. She had seen three different doctors briefly come into the room but every time they took someone back one or two more people would enter the building and check in at the desk.

"That's good." The duo sat in silence for no more than a few seconds before the huntress in training thought of another topic. "Your friend said earlier that you're part of the Kids Next Door... What is that exactly?"

"We're an organization that fights against adult tyranny." The operative answered.

"...Adult tyranny?" Ruby raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Healthy food, unfair bedtimes, dental hygiene, stuff like that," Numbuh Five noticed that her new acquaintance looked very skeptical, but continued. "Of course, nowadays we've got other things to worry about too."

"That's... nice. And your parents let you do that?" Ruby wasn't sure if she believed her or not, but it wasn't the most surprising thing she had been told in the past couple hours.

"You don't even know about the KND, huh?" The girl wearing a cap commented. "Where is Vale, exactly? You seem to be out of the loop on a lot of things."

"Vale's one of the four kingdoms of Remnant," Ruby explained. "I'm from Beacon Academy. You have to have to know about that, or at least one of the other academies, right? This place is way too fancy to be outside of any kingdoms' borders. Which one are we in?"

"Um... America?" Abby guessed, assuming that kingdoms and countries were interchangeable in this context.

"Unless there's a secret fifth kingdom that I don't know about, that's not one of them..." The huntress folded her arms. "This place is too weird to be real. There's a giant green thing in the sky. We flew on a bus with rockets attached to it to get to this hospital. Not to mention this whole city looks like it came straight out of a sci-fi game. I've never seen or heard of anywhere in Remnant that's anything like this place."

"...Remnant?" The agent asked.

"Remnant, the world we live in," Ruby replied. "Where else would we be?"

"So, the world you're from is Remnant? It has four kingdoms, different technology than Townsville, and doesn't normally have Planet Fusion in the sky?" Numbuh Five recapped.

"Uh, yeah. Why are you talking like this is all news?" The hooded girl raised an eyebrow.

"Because it..." Abby stopped herself from saying anything else, concerned about how Ruby would react to finding out how far from home she really might be. "Er... Never mind. Be right back. Numbuh Five has to... check in with Numbuh Two and the others."

"Um... Okay," Ruby replied as Abby walked away. The former noticed that the latter suddenly seemed worried over something. "I didn't say anything weird, did I?" She quietly asked herself.

"Are you Ruby?" A boy wearing a white coat and a head lamp walked up to her.

"Yeah. Is the doctor ready to see me?" The girl asked, still sitting down.

"Yup. This should only take a few moments." The boy bent over and put a small metal object onto Ruby's injured foot.

"What's that? Also, should I head back and see the- Whoa!" The object grew and started to expand until it covered all of Ruby's foot and part of her leg. "Did the doctor tell you to do that?"

"Sort of, I guess. I am the doctor." The medic explained as he pressed some buttons that appeared on the newly formed metal boot.

"...You are? You don't look old enough to have gone through medical school... Or high school." The hooded girl noticed that the doctor probably wasn't even as old as she was.

"I'm fairly new, but don't worry. I know what I'm doing," The doctor looked at an electronic meter on the device that was starting to fill up with a blue light. "With things as bad as they are right now the hospital needs as much help as it can get, but it doesn't hire amateurs."

"You have a PhD though, right?" Ruby asked, but the boy's reply was just him uncomfortably clearing his throat. "Don't I need to take my shoe off so that you can actually see what the injury is and treat it?"

"No need. I'm already treating you." A loud beep that sounded like it came from a microwave came from the boot and it shrank and scaled back down to a small badge-like object.

"And now I'm done," The doctor grabbed the device off Ruby's foot and quickly walked away. "I have more patients to attend to but if you have any questions or need help, please see someone at the counter."

"Wait, hang on! I still have..." Ruby stood up and as she did, she noticed that she had no problem doing it. She walked forward a few steps as she normally could and didn't feel any pain or discomfort. Her formerly injured ankle seemed to be as good as new.

"Well, if it helped I guess I won't question it..." She decided in a deadpan tone.

"Make room, coming through!" A blue blur zipped past Ruby and ran up to the front desk. As it stopped, the creature was revealed to be someone who looked like a blue lizard in a metal suit. He was holding a kid who looked severely injured in his arms. "He's got Fusion Matter poisoning, he needs to see someone now!"

"I'll get a doctor right away." The receptionist ran out of sight and a few seconds later, a doctor and some nurses came out of a door pushing a wheeled hospital bed.

"He was ambushed over in Orchid Bay. He looks bad, but you can help him right?" the creature set the unconscious boy on the bed. He had green slime all over him, and one of his arms was almost completely covered in it.

The doctor quickly took out a small device and used it to scan the patient. "This is Class Three FM poisoning. We should be able to cure him, but we need to start the process immediately," She wasted no time and started pushing the bed back through the door. "Get the tools ready, we may need to perform surgery!"

"Surgery? Is he going to be okay?" Ruby walked up the the strange person who had just ran past her. She knew that it was probably none of her business, but was concerned enough to ask anyway.

"Hopefully. It's Class Three, so they shouldn't have to go too far inside to remove it, but I don't imagine he'll be up and fighting again for a couple weeks." The creature's face plate retracted, showing his blue face and yellow eyes.

"...You're a dinosaur in a tracksuit, because of course you are..." The girl didn't even know why she was surprised at anything she was seeing at this point. "No offense. I mean, that's not a bad thing, I've just never met someone like you before."

"I get that a lot. Not always as a compliment, but still." The alien replied. Suddenly, a loud beeping noise emitted from a symbol on his chest as it started to glow red.

"Whoa, what's that mean?" The hooded girl had to quickly cover her eyes as a red light engulfed the person she was talking to. It quickly disappeared, and she looked again to see that the creature that had formerly stood a bit taller than her was now a head or so shorter than her.

"It means XLR8's time is up for now," He now looked like an average human boy wearing a white shirt with a black stripe on it. "I'm Ben, by the way."

"I'm Ruby, nice to meet you." The girl replied with a smile. "So... How did you just do that? Was that like an illusion or something?"

"No, I have a watch that lets me turn into aliens," Ben held up his hand, showing off a strange looking accessory on his wrist with an hourglass-like symbol on it."It alters my genetic code or something like that. I'm not really sure how it works, but it does."

"...Aliens, huh? Do you mean like... metaphorical aliens?" Ruby asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No... I mean aliens," Ben replied nonchalantly. "It crash landed in a capsule from space and I found it in the woods."

"...Okay, how is this place making less sense the more I find out about it?" Ruby shook her head.

"Huh? What do you mean?" The boy asked.

"Teleporting machines, anti-adult organizations, alien watches..." The girl continued. "Is everyone here delusional or have I gone crazy?"

"We think we might know what the problem is," Numbuh Five returned and walked up to the hooded girl. "Ruby... There's no easy way to say this, but I'll try to put it as delicately as possible-"

"I'm dreaming, right? I have to be dreaming." Ruby suggested.

"Nope, sorry," Ben replied. "You're wide awake, unless I'm the one dreaming."

"Well then what's going on? This place is too weird to be real..." The huntress thought out loud.

"Wait, am I missing something here?" Ben scratched his head. "What's wrong?"

"It's a long story..." Ruby started, "The short version is I'm lost and I don't know where in the world I am."

"At least you know you're on Earth, that's a start," The boy assumed.

"Earth?" The girl asked.

"Yeah, you know. We live on- Ow, hey!" The boy was interrupted by Abby dragging him a few feet away and turning him around so that Ruby wasn't in earshot.

"Ben, Numbuh Five strongly recommends that you shut up." The operative whispered.

"You always say that, but I get the feeling that there's something going on here that I don't know about." Ben whispered back.

"And it's none of your business. This is a very delicate situation, so get back to whatever it was you were doing and leave her alone." Abby insisted.

"She says she's lost and she doesn't know what Earth is. Is she an alien?" The boy asked.

"Again, none of your business." Numbuh Five repeated.

"I'll take that as a yes," Ben figured it was safe to say, given how defensive Abby was being. "I'm like an expert on aliens, I can help."

The operative facepalmed. "Having an alien device on your wrist doesn't make you an expert on trying to explain to someone that she's on another-"

"Why are you two whispering?" Ruby walked up to the others. She didn't hear any of their conversation but could tell they were keeping information from her. "I trust you guys, but if something's wrong I want to know about it. Maybe I can help."

Abby let out a sigh. Breaking the news to the girl was going to be rough, but at least she'd know the truth. "The situation you're in is hard to explain and I don't know how well you'll take it, but no matter what we promise that we're going to get you home."

"Thank you," The hooded girl was silent for a moment before continuing. "There's something... different about this place, and not just all the cool technology and quirky people. I can tell I'm far from home, but... How far am I exactly?"


End file.
